I actually had free tickets to this film but forwent using them after seeing the terrible write-ups: Tired buddy film; Samuel Jackson couldn't look more bored... etc. In contrast, after finally renting it, I found it to be a very entertaining film with roles that seemed to fit the actors like a favorite chair. If Jackson looked bored it was because his character was bored -- alive but not living -- and Jackson pulled it off very well. Many people here have referred to it as a rip-off buddy-film but I wonder if they aren't just buying into the dime-a-dozen reviews; or perhaps they are buddy-film connoisseur's and have some authority on it all when actually this movie deserves to be seen for itself. Personally, I can't call this a buddy film since they were not buddies in any sense of the word. More like Shaft meets Felix Unger. As well, there seems to be a consensus that there was a lot of bathroom humor. I think the fart scenes could have been left out, although the first is an almost a deserved scene to accentuate the burned out bad boy and over the top good boy irony; and the cavity search seemed totally unnecessary and basically out of character for the movie or at least out of place except the director felt uncomfortable with any "aww"s certain scenes might have evoked.
Beyond that, Les Mayfield was using slapschtick humor, and the lot of them -- Jackson, Levy, Goss and Mayfield, seemed to pull it all off with an almost Buster Keaton style; the epitome of poker-faced comedy whereby the humor is delivered in a brown paper bag instead of a piƱata spewing candy all over you (or worse, a pie in the face).
Levy is perfect as the bumbling salesman whose dreams peak at the hope of having a standing ovation for his presentation on the latest dentistry tools in his text-book nerd attire and over-indulgence in self-obsessed righteousness; while Jackson is impeccable as the rouge untrusting, seen-too-much undercover agent rotely implementing his down-to-a-science head-banging and snitch chasing, which brings purpose to his life but of which the passion and excitement of it all elude him. While the entertainment value lies squarely in the interaction between these two polar opposites, there is a not so subtle gaining of qualities from each to the other. Great performances from a fabulous cast for this silly and enjoyable caper.